Hello Everyone - Would like to share my timeline and experience about PR card process. We received our PR cards in total after 97 days.
Application Received - August 30th, 2018
AOR - November 23rd, 2018 (Had to call on November 21st after waiting for 2.5 months and not receiving any communication. After that call we receive the AOR. Note we had to provide tracking number of courier service(Canada Post in our case) along with bunch of information in regards to our application, so they able to trace our application. As support representative mentioned on the call they had no idea where our application was till this date)
Send to Production - November 26th, 2018 (Came to know by calling CIC on December 3rd)
Cards mailed - December 5th, 2018 (Came to know by calling CIC on December 7th)
Cards received (Surrey, BC)- December 7th or 8th or 9th, 2018 (Do not know if it came on Friday 7th or over the weekend as I checked mails today only. May be Canada Post is delivering over the weekend to catch up with backlog)
Biggest surprise of all. Based on mailing date December 5th, I was expecting around December 11th or 12th to receive the cards. However I checked my mail today and viola our cards were right there. Now I am not sure when it was delivered could be Friday 7th or Saturday 8th or Sunday 9th, as I did not check my mail 2 days prior from today. And it is somewhat hard to imagine that mail came all the way from Sydney, NS to Surrey, BC in such short time frame. Nonetheless I am ecstatic and thankful to Canada Post for getting the cards in my hands so quickly.
In end everything worked out for us and I am not complaining much. Only thing would be helpful was if CIC be more transparent and proactive with updating status on the application. Every time I needed an update I had to call and wait for an average 30 minutes to talk to someone. Once I called next day or two the online status got updated, which is strange, if they updated prior I would not have called and saved everyone some time.
Number - 1(888)242-2100.
Lastly I would like to thank you all the folks out here, as reading through various post helped me a lot. Wish you good luck in your application process.